What’s in a name?: $10,000, apparently

On Thursday, mourners and those seeking justice in a vicious murder will gather on the River Walk near a memorial. A $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the two men suspected of killing the victim has been offered. A Facebook page calling for justice has gotten nearly 3,000 likes. And a Georgia artist’s rendering of the victim in watercolor on eBay has more than 30 bids with the highest last bid at over $200; proceeds will go to the reward fund.

The painting’s subject is George the Duck.

By now, many have already read about George, the Muscovy-mix duck that hung around the Original Mexican Restaurant in the touristy section of the River Walk.

Rafael “Nacho” Sanchez, a bus boy at the restaurant, spotted the odd-looking duck and dubbed him George. The name stuck.

And now, thousands of people know the moniker because of reports that two men brutally stomped and strangled George the Duck to death on May 29. Grainy screen shots from security footage show two men holding what is ostensibly George’s lifeless body along the River Walk that night.

Since then, the story has been on a runaway train of media coverage. Wednesday’s report on mySA.com received more than 20,000 page views and every major local news outlet has reported the story.

All of which begs the question: All this for a duck?

A short list of rewards of similar value turn up the following: $10,000 in a fatal carjacking in Arlington that left a woman dead on Tuesday; $25,000 for information leading directly to the arrest of a Mississippi woman who is wanted for purchasing children from a Guatemala adoption agency then abusing them by taping them to their beds, punching them in the stomach and submerging their heads in water, with one child dying as a result of the abuse; $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of Joseph Daniel Krueger, one of Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, with a criminal history including assault causing bodily injury, aggravated robbery and retaliation; and $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of person or persons who set fire to a house in Riverdale, Maryland, injuring seven firefighters.

The search also turned up an animal abuse-related reward: $500 for information leading to the arrest of the person who shot a horse through the right eye on Monday in Mississippi, resulting in the horse’s euthanization.

The horse’s name wasn’t given.

A recent New Yorker article by Paul Bloom, “The Baby in the Well: The Case Against Empathy,” described “the identifiable victim effect” — people who are presented with a victim’s name, age and image, are much more likely to empathize, and, in turn, to help out.

So it may be with George the Duck. Imagine the headlines if Sanchez had never bothered to name this duck.

“Anonymous local duck terrorized, killed,” has less of a compelling ring to it.